Abstract Negative escalation of social exchange exacts significant costs on both individuals and society. Instead of in-kind reciprocity—an eye for an eye—negative reciprocity may escalate, taking two eyes for an eye. We tested two competing mechanisms for negative escalation using a modified dictator game that reliably produces escalating reciprocity to others' negative actions but not to positive actions. According to one mechanism, escalation is strategic: a deliberate attempt to deter future harm. According to another mechanism, escalation is reflexive: an impulsive act of retribution without consideration of future consequences. In seven experiments, we find clear evidence consistent with a reflexive mechanism. Encouraging deliberation reduced negative escalation in one-shot interactions as well as in repeated interactions. Focusing on future consequences decreased escalation whereas disabling deliberation increased escalation. Finally, the explicit goal to punish another's negative behavior increased escalation while the goal of deterring future transgressions did not. These experiments suggest that escalation is a reflexive form of punishment rather than a deliberate act of strategic deterrence. Encouraging, enabling, or training deliberative processes may effectively reduce costly escalation in everyday life.
Abstract By many accounts cooperation appears to be a default strategy in social interaction. There are, however, several documented instances in which reflexive responding favors aggressive behaviors: for example, interactions with out-group members. We conduct a rigorous test of potential boundary conditions of intuitive prosociality by looking at whether intuition favors cooperation even towards competitive out-group members, and even in losses frames. Moreover, we address three major methodo...
Does cooperating require the inhibition of selfish urges? Or does "rational" self-interest constrain cooperative impulses? I investigated the role of intuition and deliberation in cooperation by meta-analyzing 67 studies in which cognitive-processing manipulations were applied to economic cooperation games (total N = 17,647; no indication of publication bias using Egger's test, Begg's test, or p-curve). My meta-analysis was guided by the social heuristics hypothesis, which proposes that intuitio...
#2Yagiz Özdemir(UZH: University of Zurich)H-Index: 2
Last. Ernst Fehr(UZH: University of Zurich)H-Index: 143
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Humans will incur costs to punish others who violate social norms. Theories of justice highlight 2 motives for punishment: a forward-looking deterrence of future norm violations and a backward-looking retributive desire to harm. Previous studies of costly punishment have not isolated how much people are willing to pay for retribution alone, because typically punishment both inflicts damage (satisfying the retributive motive) and communicates a norm violation (satisfying the deterrence motive). H...
Last. René Marois(Vandy: Vanderbilt University)H-Index: 50
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In determining punishment, an actor's mental state often trumps the impact of emotions, as unintended harms may go unpunished, regardless of their magnitude. Using fMRI, the authors reveal a temporoparietal-medial-prefrontal circuit that regulates amygdala activity and by which evaluation of a transgressor's mental state gates our emotional urges to punish.
Last. Toko Kiyonari(Aoyama Gakuin University)H-Index: 18
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Homo economicus, a model for humans in neoclassical economics, is a rational maximizer of self-interest. However, many social scientists regard such a person as a mere imaginary creature. We found that 31 of 446 residents of relatively wealthy Tokyo suburbs met the behavioral definition of Homo economicus. In several rounds of economic games, participants whose behavior was consistent with this model always apportioned the money endowed by the experimenter to themselves, leaving no share for the...
Evolutionary accounts have difficulty explaining why people cooperate with anonymous strangers they will never meet. Recently models, focusing on emotional processing, have been proposed as a potential explanation, with attention focusing on a dual systems approach based on system 1 (fast, intuitive, automatic, effortless, and emotional) and system 2 (slow, reflective, effortful, proactive and unemotional). Evidence shows that when cooperation is salient, people are fast (system 1) to cooperate,...
This paper presents experimental evidence from a simple three-person game showing that many individuals are willing to avenge third-party punishment in one-shot interactions. The threat of counter-punishment has a large negative effect on the willingness of third parties to punish selfish behavior. In spite of this, the extent of selfish behavior is identical to that in a treatment without counter-punishment opportunities. We discuss explanations for this puzzling finding.
Last. Jiaying Zhao(UBC: University of British Columbia)H-Index: 15
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The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance bef...
Abstract Economic experiments are increasingly being used in a number of research areas and are a major source of data guiding the debate surrounding the nature of human prosociality. The degree to which experiment behavior accurately reflects external behavior, however, has long been debated. A number of recent studies have revealed just how remarkably sensitive participants are to cues of a lack of anonymity. Similarly, others have suggested that the very structure of the experimental context ...
Last. Jens Ludwig(Public Policy Institute of California)H-Index: 69
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Improving the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth remains a top policy priority in the United States, although identifying successful interventions for adolescents - particularly males - has proven challenging. This paper reports results from a large randomized controlled trial of an intervention for disadvantaged male youth grades 7-10 from high-crime Chicago neighborhoods. The intervention was delivered by two local non-profits and included regular interactions with a pro-social adu...
Student behaviour is a high priority for Pre-Service Teachers and Early Career Teachers. This article shares a view into a journey taken in the step from Pre-Service Teacher to Early Career Teacher...
Grounded in social exchange theory (SET), the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between empowering leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), as mediated by duty orientation (including duty to members, duty to mission and duty to codes). Further, this study proposes that perceived leader expediency moderates indirectly between empowering leadership and UPB.,This paper tests this social exchange model across a survey study using time-lagged data collections fro...